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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27598492">Junkyard Society</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/PixelatedPups/pseuds/PixelatedPups'>PixelatedPups</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Homestuck</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - No Sburb Session, Blood and Gore, M/M, Slow Burn</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-07 00:35:50</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Explicit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>4,481</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27598492</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/PixelatedPups/pseuds/PixelatedPups</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>After a war in John's hometown, he's forced to live in a barren Junkyard with a tyrant who calls himself the king. With his friends at his side, can he ever truly hope to take the crown into his own hands?</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>John Egbert/Dirk Strider</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>DirkJohn Big Bang 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Thank you so much to all of my discord friends for helping me write this. This idea would have never turned into a fully fledged fic if it wasn't for y'all ;w;!! Please also check out this amazing <a href="https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/747267615776309369/772585385611493396/Dirkjohn_final_sketch.png">piece</a> from my artist :0!! I'm so glad I got to work with them on this, it was a lot of fun!! I look foward to working with you again in the future!! The stuff on their <a href="https://www.instagram.com/anglepissedofferson/">Instagram</a> is amazing too, please check them out over there as well!! (Also yes the title is based off of a song from Lady and the Tramp pfffff)</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  
</p><p>You suck in an air of breath to calm your rising anxiety. The breeze makes your skin itch. The fleas too, but it’s beyond nauseous. Today especially. You wish the night was twinkling like the cities you used to drive by before <em> this.  </em></p><p>You swish your head side to side. It’s probably not the best time to get lost in your head right now. Some stars are out, and you're happy to see them, but it’s not anywhere near as much light as you’d like it to be. The king likes to send out his gangs, thoughtfully nicknamed the Midnight Crew, at this time. You scoff at the unoriginal name the others came up with. </p><p>As you’re digging your way through the junkyard, your current residency for the last decade, you find what you’ve been looking for. You quickly grab the tails of a few rats before they can scramble away from your sight and put them in your pouch to take back with you.</p><p>Once you get “home”, which is just a glorified way of saying you live in an abandoned trailer, you begin your routine of acting injured. </p><p>When you first got to the junkyard, it was when the war was coming to a close. Every neighborhood was burnt to the ground and there was nowhere else to turn to. You wondered around for days looking for any sense of shelter when you came across this awful, <em> awful, </em>place you call a “home”. Even then the title is said with bile, causing you to shake with anger when you think about it. </p><p>You can hear the footsteps creep closer. The symbol on your trailer alerts the Midnight Crew that you live here per king’s orders. You hear a knock on the door and get ready.</p><p>You clutch your blood soaked side, the last thing you want is to be injured or killed. They loom over you like usual and grab your hair with their hands, shoving you onto the floor. Your scalp burns but you cough up a small amount of blood and shake. The fear of being killed helps your case enough for them to leave. They never spend too much time in one place-- too many people to look over. </p><p>You stay on the ground long enough to hear the leaves crunch before silence settles into place once more. You get up and wipe off the rat's blood dribbling down your chin. Your brows settle into a scowl before walking over to your bed. You switch into more comfortable clothes. You smelled like a leaky dumpster, but to be fair, what doesn’t around here. </p><p>The new clothes you put on stick to your skin and you try not to gag. That bastard everyone calls king has been in charge for years. When he first started putting in new rules, your sense of rebellion was as strong as a bonfire. Ever since he started to crack down and majorly disfigure people or just straight up kill them, all you want at this point is being able to survive. There is no reason why you should set aside your life and try to go at the king. </p><p>A glimpse of blonde hair outside of your window rips you out of your thoughts and you instinctively go to open the door for him. His shit-eating grin is already burned into your mind that when you swing open the door in agitation, he already has it on his face. You don’t want to really see him right now but you’re glad Slick’s men didn’t get him for another night. You mumble his name as greeting instead.</p><p>“Strider.”</p><p>“Egbert.”</p><p>You have no idea how he survives everyday out here with his shades on. It makes you a tad bit aggravated at him for his sake. You want the very few friends you have to stay safe. </p><p>Usually he tends to go out of his way to bring you new plans to disrupt the throne. You only ever were interested in it the first few times when times were more hopeful. Every new idea he comes up with would take too much effort. Your hope for this bleak future doesn’t have any means to get up on its feet. </p><p>“Ok, ok, listen to this one though, first we’ll-” You tune him out as usual. Doesn’t he know there are more important things to think about right now? You reach up to grab the bridge of your nose in frustration. You love the guy, you really do. But you <em> just </em>got Slick’s guys off your back for another month and it hasn’t even been an hour yet. You’re cranky after a long day and you can’t help the snap that comes out of your mouth as your irritation builds.</p><p>“Dave! Holy shit, just give me a second dude.” His face doesn’t really move but you can tell that he’s hurt by your outburst. He’s about to get up to leave but you quickly place your hand on his shoulder to stop him. “I’m sorry, it’s a rough night. Do you want anything else while you’re here?”</p><p>He perks up a little. “Not unless you got a decent meal.” Your gaze drops, it’s been months since your stomach didn’t growl and twist itself into a knot every time you tried to move. The least you can offer is the few rats you caught earlier. You bring them out of your pocket and start to hand him one but he pushes your hand back.</p><p>“It’s fine, you need it more than me right now. I can practically hear the depths of the ocean from here.” You’d laugh more than a chuckle if it didn’t hurt your ribs, but his smile makes you feel the nostalgia of better days. “Anyway, I wanted to make sure you were doing well. Slick has been upping his kill count recently so I needed to ask you something.” You’re quick to stop him from his usual plan rant but his serious expression makes you look at him curiously. </p><p>“Just hear me out ok? If you <em>really</em> think this idea couldn’t work, I’ll stop coming up with these plans altogether.“ You mull it over in your head. You don’t mind hearing Dave’s plans and you don’t want him to actually stop making them entirely, contrary to your mood at this moment. It’s one of the hobbies you can actually do in this wasteland and not feel like a vile piece of shit every time you try to enjoy yourself. You sigh. Might as well hear him out.</p><p>“Ok. Go ahead.” His face visibly lights up and he begins to tell you what he came up with. “Alright. So I know you don’t know this yet, but first, I have an older brother, second-” He tries to go on but you’re not letting him skip over this new discovery. “You have an older brother? Why didn’t you tell me about this?” Your face goes hot. You and Dave survived this long because he’s the one who warned you that you’d be safer here. If it weren’t for him you’d be buried six feet under right now. You tell each other everything so the fact that he’s never mentioned him before is astonishing.</p><p>“Yeah, I didn’t want to tell you because,” he takes a pause. “I thought he was dead when we got here.” The somber look on his face makes your heart wrench. “But, he’s alive now. And he’s the best chance we have at fighting Slick,” he quickly brightens up. A glint of determination sparks through Dave’s shades and you start to feel the same. You’re not sure if it’s the rat's blood acting up in your stomach or if you genuinely believe that his brother is some sort of god send, but you want to believe that it could work.</p><p>You sit down across from him at the small dinner table and get ready to hear what he has to say. “All I know so far is the fact that Dirk knows how to beat Hal.” Although it doesn’t sound like much, that gives the both of them a solid chance. Most of Dave’s past ideas were “dump water on him” or “ask him what 0 divided by 0 is.” Funny, but at that time your drive and physical ability for taking out Slick was a lot stronger. You’re getting the same feeling you had back then. Nowadays, the king feels untouchable with Hal around.</p><p>Hal first showed up as Slicks right-hand-man a couple years ago. He wasn’t a full robot by any means, but he took on the nickname, “Robotic Soldier”. He was probably the only person to ever get close enough to beating Slick but rumors about him actually doing it or just settling on being a protector for him have been going around for ages. </p><p>Most of the original story is held by the people who were brave enough to partake in the challenge though. You weren’t old enough to understand what was happening around you but eventually it started to make sense. The only way to beat the king was through a game called King of the Hill. At first it was absurd to use a <em>game</em> to determine who ruled over the survivors but as time passed it seemed like the only way to gain control of Slicks men was to beat him at his own stupid game. </p><p>You forget that Dave was waiting for your final answer and you clear your throat before telling him that you’re in for sure. “Sweet. We just have to find him now,” you give him a sharp look. “I assumed he was already with you. How do you even know he’s here?” He smirks. “I’m pretty sure there’s only one other attractive, young, handsome, blonde guy walking around with a sword in this junkyard,” you give him another irritated stare. “And he’s the only dumbass I’ve ever known to walk around with pointy anime shades, so it has to be him,” you look him in the eye one last time. “Dave. Even though your brother sounds really easy to find, this is a big junkyard. How are we supposed to find him and then come up with a plan without gaining attention from the Midnight Crew?” He looks back at you and you know by his sudden silence that he’s drawing a blank at that one. </p><p>Of course you’ve tried to over take Slick before, but you were quickly deterred from putting it into practice after the recently self proclaimed Redglare tried their luck without getting far. You like being able to have your sight, especially when it’s hard to find food in the later seasons. You keep getting distracted by your thoughts, but you’re glad you don’t have the Midnight Crew watching you as closely as before. </p><p>You sigh finally. “So. For right now. We’re going to first, find your brother, second, figure out how he’s going to take down Hal, and then third, find a way to take down Slick, <em>all</em> before the end of next month’s King of the Hill. Does that sound about right?” He nods and does a chuckle. “Can’t believe you’re still calling it by that name but yeah, that sounds pretty much like the whole deal.” </p><p>You smile. “Good. We’ll head out first thing in the morning. We have the whole month, but that won’t give us a huge amount of time. We need to move fast so that the Midnight Crew doesn’t catch wind of another plan to overtake Slick.” He gets that look of determination again. “Right. Haven’t had a sleepover in awhile anyway. We can catch up.”</p><p>“Dave, we talk almost everyday, there’s almost nothing to catch up on. But it would be nice to have some company. The days have been blurring together for too long, I need a change of pace,” you say as you start to clean up. “You and me both,” he says as he flops down on your makeshift bed of blankets you were able to find. It isn’t the best but you’ve had worse nights sleeping in the back of a truck, so you can’t complain too much. You make yourself as comfortable as you can on the pile and begin to reminisce about your lives before the war.</p><p>Dave slips into sleep first but you stay up a bit longer with a giddy feeling rising in your chest for the first time in years. Before you know it, you soon follow Dave in comfortable sleep. </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>The light filtering through your window and Dave’s loud snoring in your ear wakes you up. You carefully push him off of you before cooking some of the rats from last night for breakfast. You’ve never been much of a cook like your dad, but you manage to not burn the meat like usual. As you finish up, you hear Dave yawn and set both of the plates on the table. You can hear a faint “G’ mornin...” as he begins to eat. “Do you want to check the market first?” He nods. “Yeah, I would’ve noticed him a lot sooner if he was around here.” You agree and start to eat your share. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The market isn’t too far away, but it’s enough to make you sweat by the time you get there. Thankfully, there’s not a lot of people around so it doesn’t take too much wandering around before you spot Dave’s description of him at a booth. Dave calls out to him and he looks around before quickly walking over to the two of you. You thought that his brisk walk was to hug Dave or something brotherly, but he grabs the front of Dave’s shirt forcefully. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“How do you know my name,” the venom that seeps through his words makes you take a step back instinctively. Is this really the guy related to your best friend? You assume he recognizes Dave as he let’s him go finally. “Tsk. What do you want, runt.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The expression that Dave makes is unreadable and you quickly get between them. Even if Dirk is the best chance at getting closer to the king, that doesn’t give him the right to treat Dave like that. Your scowl brings his attention to you but Dave steps in between you before you start picking a fight. “Glad to see you remember me asshole. We need your help.” You're sure Dirk was going to start a fight right there, but he walks closer to an alleyway and beckons you two over.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>You whisper over to Dave as you hesitantly walk closer. “You didn’t tell me he was such an ass,” you frown. “If I did, would you still have tried the plan,” Dave responds with a side eye as he knows your answer from your silence.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What the fuck do you two dickheads want.” Scowl still in place, you stand in front of Dave before he can say anything. “Listen, whether you join us or not doesn’t matter to me, but you look like the kind of guy that would be up for a good fight. Lucky for you, I’ve got an itch that you could help scratch.” A smirk begins to form on Dirk’s face and you can feel Dave trying to pull you back. You weren’t sure what Dave was going to say to try and convince him, but you could tell Dirk wanted a fight by bringing both of you over here. Your hand taps a trusty metal hammer on your waist out of habit and you hear Dave behind you still trying to make you back down. You don’t listen to his warning and bring your attention back to Dirk.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“If I win, you join us and we fight the king. If you win, we’ll leave you alone,” he smirks as he grabs the sword on his hip. “Sure,” is all you hear before the air splits directly in front of you. You try to step back, but his foot is already behind you as you trip. The sting in your elbows doesn’t stop you from rolling to the side. You expected him to stab where you once were but his sword nearly misses your head as you quickly scramble to get back up. As soon as you bring your arm up with your hammer he’s behind you. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He puts you in a headlock and brings you to the ground. You weeze out a breath and scramble under him. You can’t lose a fight you started mere seconds ago but the edges of your sight seem to think otherwise. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Before you can completely pass out, he lets go of you just to kick you in the ribs. Your lungs scream at you as you brace for the next hit. You leave your eyes clamped shut for a few more seconds but it never comes. You glance back up to see Dave pushing him aside. “Alright alright back off, we get it,” he says bitterly with an outstretched hand to help you up. You take it gratefully and wince at the forming bruise covering your side. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>You weren’t expecting him to be that strong considering how lanky he looks, but it would’ve been nice to have him on your side even with his shit personality. A fight’s a fight though. You lean on Dave getting ready to leave, but you hear Dirk’s voice again behind you. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I think I’ll stick around with you two actually. Feels nice to get some extra training in without worry.” You turn around and glare at him the best you can. “If you’re looking for another fight-” He pats your head condescendingly. “With those shit moves? You wouldn’t even last a second this time ‘round.” You try to slap his hand away and miss, ultimately proving his point. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He holds back a laugh as he steps back to pick up his stuff. “Anyway, if you show some real talent, I’ll consider joining you.” You want to punch him but if you have to put up with this asshole in order to have even the slightest bit of hope, you’re going to take it. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>You look over at Dave for his approval. He hesitates, but eventually nods. “Fine. Follow us then.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>-</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>You all make it back to your trailer and let Dirk go in first. “I was expecting this place to look a lot shitter. Guess I was right to some degree,” he says while looking around. You ignore his comment and cut to asking questions. “Dirk, how long have you been living in the Junkyard?” “Not long, been here about three months give or take.” Your expression goes sour. Not the most promising amount of time, but you continue nonetheless. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Would you be willing to fight Hal for us?” He whips his head to face you and you assume he doesn’t want to for obvious reasons, though he still responds. “Sure. I can fight Hal for you, but what’s in it for me?” Surprised, you think for a moment. “If you come with us to fight Hal, you can have whatever you want when I’m king.” He huffs out a laugh. You didn’t think it was that promising either. “And I’m just supposed to believe you’ll keep your word. Let alone win.” There’s nothing else you can really think of, so you ask him what he would want in return. You weren’t expecting his reply. “I want you to beg me to help you. We’ll see what my reward can be when you manage to be king.” Can’t believe this asshole. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“No fucking way,” you try to say, but Dave is quick to put a hand on your shoulder. You groan. You know Dirk is your best bet, but <em>really</em>? One last glare is shot at Dirk before getting down on the bare floor. The scrapes on your knees burn through your jeans and you’re pretty sure they’re still bleeding. You feel degraded and ashamed and you want to get this over with. You place your hands in front of you and press your forehead to the ground. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Will you help us,” you say as quietly as you can. You hear him lean forward, “What was that?” He’s mocking you. You think about spitting at him, his shoes are eye level. “Dirk,” you grit out, “Will you <em>please</em> help us.” You look up at him this time but feel his boot on your shoulder weighing you down. Hands involuntarily shaking beneath you, you try to stay sane. “Say it with more- emotion.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Emotion,” you say back to him as he nods. If he’s really going to make you do this, you might as well play it up. “Oh Dirk,” you say, bringing out the fake tears and everything, “please help us. We need a big, strong man like you to beat up all the big, bad men.” You would’ve gone to kiss his shoe but he recoils after you move towards it. “Ok christ, didn’t know you were a freak,” he says disgusted. “<em>You’re</em> the one that wanted me to have more ‘emotion’,” you say, getting up angrily. A seat getting pulled up to the table grabs both of your attention. You look over and Dave pats the table for you both to join him.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Dirk, how much do you know about the challenge?” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Not much, only thing I know is that it happens every month,” he says while pulling up a chair. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Alright, since that’s the only thing, we should probably give you more details. The only way to get the king title truly is if you can beat everyone in a ring, which would mean that assassinating the king wouldn’t stop the Midnight Crew. If anything, assassinating Slick would put Hal in an even more powerful position, making the chances of getting through <em>him</em> even slimmer. The only way of having a secure route to the throne would be bypassing or beating Hal and then finding a way to beat Slick fairly. He fights dirty so we need to be careful and try to get him alone. If he’s able to call the Midnight Crew to help him, we’ve lost,” Dirk looks like he’s following along which is good. Dave usually likes to ramble, but you’re glad he’s doing well at filling him in. “With that in mind,” he continues, “we need to figure out where the best possible area is to train. I would say that the safest place to go would be on the other side of the Junkyard. As good as that area is at being a hiding spot, it also doubles as the riskiest, so we would need to be careful.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Dave wants to go there? In town seems like a much better option. “We need to train somewhere else. As you said, the dump is risky. Even if we can make it in, it’s not set in stone that we’ll be ok. The rabid dogs and sniper would have no problem taking us out if they spotted us. I know it sounds ridiculous, but we should train in the marketplace. There are a lot of alleys to hide in, and it shouldn’t be hard to find an area where we can set up every night.” It sounds reasonable enough in your head, but a certain someone next to you thinks otherwise.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“John, right? That’s the dumbest thing you’ve said all day. People use the alleyways for drug deals and information. Not to mention gangs who wouldn’t be shy of letting you look down a barrel of a gun. If we tried to set up for the night, we could be stepping on someone’s toes. Based on what both of you said, all we have to deal with is a few dogs and <em>one</em> sniper, how hard could it be?” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>You roll your eyes. “If we get bitten even once, there is a high chance of getting rabies. And I know you haven’t been here long, but I’m sure you know by now that medical supplies are hard to come by. You’d have to trade an arm and a leg for one measly pill of tylenol, let alone a cure for rabies.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Dirk glares back. “And how do you expect all those people to keep quiet about what we’re doing. Once they set their eyes on us, I doubt we’re going to make it out of there in one piece. I suggest we go to this other place you mentioned. How hard is it to fight a couple dogs into submission and take this ‘rouge’ out.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>You can feel your face start to heat up in anger. How does Dirk not see how dangerous it is to try and survive out there? Thankfully one of the two blondes has some sense in him and Dave breaks the tie. “I’ve known John for a long time now and he hasn’t let me down yet. I think John’s idea makes more sense.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Fine,” Dirk huffs. “If you two think this is the better option, then sure. But don’t say I didn’t warn you.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“It’s settled then, we’ll head out for the marketplace first thing in the morning,” Dave pats your shoulder as he heads out the door. You didn’t realize how late it had gotten and the fact that he’s leaving you alone with his brother. “You’re leaving already? And here I thought you wanted to spend more time with me,” you say trying to get him to stay and see the obvious problem. “We can spend plenty of time together tomorrow. And no offense Egbert, but I couldn’t sleep for shit last night. As much as I’d like to hang around for round two, my own bed is calling my name,” he says as he leaves. Now that you think about it, it might be better that Dirk is with you rather than Dave for one night. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>As you look back over to Dirk, he looks more exhausted than before. You can see the bags under his eyes more clearly below his shades and he looks like he hasn’t eaten a good meal for awhile. Even though he’s an asshole, and you can still feel the bruise on your side from earlier, you’re not going to let the poor guy starve. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Do you want some dinner?” you venture, “Dave and I were able to pick some things up at the market earlier.” He looks at you surprised and begins to nod. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>-</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>As you both finish your meal, you settle down for the night. Your eyes begin to close as soon as you get comfortable and as much as you don’t trust Dirk, he seems just as tired as you. There isn’t much to steal here anyway, but you would like to not lose anything when you woke up. Dirk rustles around one last time and you slip into unconsciousness. </span>
</p>
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